BJP, TRS Govts are anti-farmers: Rahul

Hyderabad, May 15 (INN): Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has accused both, the BJP-led Central Government and TRS Government of Telangana, of having failed to address the problems being faced by the farmers.

Addressing a public meeting at Wadial near Nirmal of Adilabad district at the conclusion of his 15 km long 'Kisan Sandesh Yatra' on Friday, Rahul Gandhi alleged that both the governments were working for a select few corporate houses while neglected the poor and farmers. He specifically targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao accusing them of failing on all fronts. He said both of them have failed to provide jobs to the unemployed youth during the one-year rule. The 'Ache Din' (good days) came only for a select few people and not for the common people, he said.

Rahul Gandhi described KCR as "Mini Modi" and said both Modi and "Mini Modi" have been cheating the people by making tall promises. "While Modi came to power on the promise of providing better MSP to farmers, "Mini Modi" assured to waive off crop loans. But they utterly failed to fulfill those promises," he said.

The Congress Vice-President said that the UPA regime had waived off crops loans of more than Rs 70,000 crore across the country. About 6.5 lakh farmers were also provided loans of nearly Rs 8 lakh crore.

Rahul Gandhi condemned the criticism by BJP and TRS on his padayatra. He said instead of objecting to his visit to the families of farmers who committed suicide, the BJP and TRS ministers and leaders should have reviewed the losses occurred to the farmers due to drought and later unseasonal rains. "They could have prevented suicides by giving an assurance to farmers that their losses will be properly compensated," he said.

The Congress leader also criticised the Land Acquisition Bill and accused the BJP-led NDA Government of trying to snatch away land from farmers to benefit the corporate sector. He reminded that the previous UPA Government had passed a law wherein it was provisioned that land would be returned to farmers if industries or projects are not established on it in four years. However, the NDA's Bill does not specify the time period and a farmer permanently loses his land once it is acquired by the government. He nearly 40% of land acquired for the Special Economic Zones was lying unused. Similarly, the Central Governments posses huge chunks of land in different parts of the country. Instead of using available land, the Central Government is eying on land owned by poor farmers.

Rahul Gandhi said his party was ready to fight the government, both in the Parliament and on the streets. He alleged that people were being misled with the slogans like "Make In India". He also made a mention about Narendra Modi's suit which is worth about Rs 10 lakh.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi visited the families of farmers in Koritkal, Laxmanchanda, Pottupally, Rachapur and Wadial villages.